NEWS

Local news in and around Aylmer and Elgin County

Aylmer, Malahide mayors running again

January 6, 2014 | 0 Comments

The mayors of Aylmer and Malahide plan to run again in the Oct. 27, 2014 municipal election. Malahide Mayor David Mennill submitted his nomination form on the first day he could do so, Thursday, Jan. 2. Aylmer Mayor Jack Couckuyt filed his nomination with the Clerk’s office on Friday, Jan. 3. No other candidates had…

Schools closed due to winter storm

January 6, 2014 | 0 Comments

Pupils and students across the region had their Christmas holiday extended on Monday, Jan. 6 due to the winter storm overnight. Officials with both the Thames Valley District School Board and London District Catholic School Board cancelled all buses and closed all schools on the first day pupils and students were expected back in classes…

Health Unit budget okayed without debate

January 6, 2014 | 0 Comments

Elgin St. Thomas Public Health board members at their December meeting unanimously approved without discussion a budget calling for a three-percent increase for 2014. That brings total planned spending to $6.375-million, up by $185,726, with the province paying $4,781,667 of that cost. That leaves $940,395 to be covered by Elgin County and $653,494 by the…

Vienna couple have first baby of 2014

January 2, 2014 | 0 Comments

Julie and Chad Underhill of Vienna welcomed their new son Camden Chad into the world at 6:55 a.m. on New Year’s Day at St. Thomas Elgin General Hospital, the first baby to be born there in 2014. The couple, who have two other young children, were attending a wedding at a London hotel where Mr.…

One hurt in New Year’s Eve crash

January 2, 2014 | 0 Comments

A two vehicle crash that occurred at the intersection of Myrtle and Spruce streets in Aylmer at about 1 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 31 injured a female driver of one of the cars. A black Ford Fusion crashed into the home on the northwest corner of the intersection. The roads were snow covered at the…

Tagger targeting town?

December 30, 2013 | 0 Comments

A vandal with an ideological bent might have started a graffiti campaign in Aylmer. Earlier in December, someone spray-painted a message, quoting a biblical verse, on the Masonic Hall on South Street West. And over Christmas, the target was the John Street North bridge, and the message was “Fluoride kills, stop it, Dr. Paul Connett.”…

Malahide too rich for grant?

December 30, 2013 | 0 Comments

Malahide, like Central Elgin, seems to be too wealthy these days to qualify for a provincial infrastructure grant. Malahide councillors, who had earlier learned informally the township had been turned down for grants to help preserve Dexter Line west of Port Bruce from Lake Erie erosion as well as an adjacent water supply pipeline, got…

Unprecedented support for rezoning

December 30, 2013 | 0 Comments

In a meeting unprecedented in decades of Malahide council, neighbours turned out in droves to support, rather than oppose, a request for a car painting and body shop in mostly residential Kingsmill. Barry and Kristina Millard have a mobile car painting business, and want a permanent base for it. The only one out of a room…

Elgin seeks to preserve rail lines

December 30, 2013 | 0 Comments

Elgin County councillors want to ensure no more railway lines are ripped out of the ground here. They recently discussed that threat, given that Trillium Railway, a short line serving East Elgin as well as Tillsonburg and Delhi, went up for sale Dec. 20. If no buyer can be found, in six months the company’s…

Ambulance base in Vienna?

December 30, 2013 | 0 Comments

Elgin County councillors on Dec. 12 approved a recommendation from Medavie, the new contractor for ambulance services here starting Dec. 29, to keep a “first-response vehicle” full-time in Bayham, even if it’s only used from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. That would save about an hour a day of travel from and to the…

North versus neighbours, but in a friendly way

December 30, 2013 | 0 Comments

Former MPP Peter North wants to sever three building lots from a property northeast of the intersection of Independent and St. George streets in the Lyndhurst subdivision of Central Elgin. While two neighbours appeared before Central Elgin council last week to oppose a proposed official plan amendment and rezoning to allow that, the dispute didn’t…

Fire guts house on Moore Ave.

December 19, 2013 | 0 Comments

Firefighters tried to control a fire that consumed most of the inside of a home at 44 Moore Avenue in Aylmer the morning of Wednesday, Dec. 11. A large hole was cut into the north side of the house and firefighters were inside trying to extinguish the smouldering remnants of the fire despite the heavy…